Abstracts submitted by Giovanni Lapenta
3D MHD Simulations of the Interplay of Flows and reconnection in the Solar Corona
Giovanni Lapenta
Centrum voor Plasma-Astrofysica, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Reconnection is a fundamental process believed to play a significant part in the collective phenomena involved in many coronal processes. We consider here specifically two. First, the regions of formation of the slow solar wind, near the cusps of the helmet streamers. Second, the processes involved in the formation of coronal mass ejections (CME). In both cases reconnection can be an important processes enabling a change in the topological connection of magnetic field lines.
Reconnection develops in a constant interplay of large-scale changes of the system and small-scale dissipations. Two crucial mediators of small-large scale couplings are flows and electric fields. We report here a simulation study using the 3D-MHD code FLIP. We focus on three examples of specific coronal processes are used to illustrate the phenomena: i) the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and its role in CME [1]; ii) the compressional action of bent field lines near the cusp of helmet streamers to lead to reconnection and the formation and ejection of the blobs [2] observed by LASCO in relation to the origin of the slow solar wind; and iii) the kink instability of open lines anchored at only one end to the photosphere [3].
[1]G. Lapenta, D.A. Knoll, Solar Phys., 214, 107-129 (2003); [2]G. Lapenta, D.A. Knoll, Astrophys. J., 624, 1049-1056 (2005); [3]G. Lapenta, I. Furno, T. Intrator, J. Geophys. Res., 111, A12S06, doi:10.1029/2006JA011932 (2006) |
A new proposed effort: SOTERIA (SOlar-TERrestrial Investigations and Archives)
SOTERIA Consortium (Coordinator: Giovanni Lapenta)
SOTERIA Consortium
The proposed project realizes a wide synergy in the fields of solar- space- and geophysics to achieve a higher level of processed data and better understanding of solar and space events having terrestrial impact. The study of these events has an increasing importance with the increasing amount of technical equipment (e.g. power lines and telecommunication satellites) that can be damaged during these events. The project mobilizes more than 50 experts and significant resources from EU (including new EU member states) for the process, analysis, and interpretation of a large set of relevant data of more than 20 satellites (including 5 ESA missions) and the complementing ground-based data. It aims at providing better data bases and new methods to access and analyze them. The new databases go beyond the present state-of-the-art in details, and their on-line publication facilitates fast access to the open data acquired during these missions. The data will be further connected with new theoretical and simulation models and their usage will provide the expected impact of improvement of the scientific results that can be obtained from collected space data. The outputs will provide a long-term dissemination contributing to a higher level space monitoring system, and more reliable space weather forecast ability.
In the proposal all the aspects are related to the effective exploitation of scientific data from space missions. The project fulfills the expectations of EU Work Program on space science by "developing tools to archive, access and process the data", and realizing research as "downstream R&D activities complementing space missions". The set of deliverables "enhances the effectiveness and productivity of the European scientific community in terms of usage of this data". The research work will be accompanied with educational and SME-related activities as well as public events. |
|
|